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Fingers Were Meant to be Inky

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Yiren 856 Fountain Pen Review

Yiren 856 Fountain Pen Uncapped, with the cap laying down and the pen resting on top of it

Inexpensive. Chinese. Classy. Dependable. Bigfooty. It’s the…

Yiren 856 Fountain Pen

Price: $7.50
Nib: Medium (#5)
Filling System: Standard International Cartridge & Converter

About the Company & Pen:

Yiren has probably become my favorite Chinese fountain pen brand. It’s not just because their pens are attractive and work well (they are…and they do). It’s also because the Yiren (or Yeren…or 野人) is the Chinese Bigfoot (or Sasquatch…or Skunk Ape). Yes, I know. I mention that every time I talk about Yiren pens. And I will continue to do so every time from here to eternity. I like fountain pens. I like bigfoot. It’s a match made in heaven. Deal with it.

Yiren, and their sister brand Bookworm, are made by the Nanchang Yiren Pen Company from the Chinese town of Wengang. Yiren refers to Wengang as the “pen capital” of China. I can neither confirm nor deny this claim, but it sounds like… Read More

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Think Pens Couture Review (Vacation & Violino)

Think Couture Fountain Pens (Vacation and Violino) Uncapped, with the pens laying down beside their caps

I’m not sure whether to include these pens in my “Took a Flyer” file or my “Impulse Buy” file. I guess I’ll copy this review and place it in both files. Like I really have files.

Think Pens Couture Fountain Pens: Vacation & Violino

Price: $45.00 each
Nib: Medium
Filling System: Cartridge/Converter (Standard International)

About the Company & Pens:

Okay, so I’m going to do something a little different with this review and look at two pens instead of just one. Although the two pens have different designs, they employ the same “guts” internally, and they are part of the much larger “Couture” line of pen designs. The problem with Think Pens is that… Read More

/ / Paper, Reviews / 2 Comments

Greenroom Recycled Notebooks Review

The three Greenroom Recycled Notebooks showing the three cover designs

I’m just going to get it out now. I have a problem. A paper problem. Well, it’s not the paper that’s the problem. I’m the problem. Or more specifically, my infatuation with paper is the problem. I have far more notebooks than I could ever use. Yet I still buy more. Why? Because I want them. I need them. If I don’t have them, I’ll just die. I know that may seem like a gross exaggeration, but I’m holding to it.

On a recent trip to Target, I thought I heard someone calling for help in the stationery aisle. I dashed over there to find that it was… Read More

/ / Ink, Reviews / 2 Comments

Quick Look: Robert Oster Signature Inks (Part 3)

Banner image for the Robert Oster Signature Ink Quick Look posts

Robert Oster Signature Inks: That’s a Wrap! (Yeah, Right)

Inspired by the Australian nature surrounding him, Rob Oster engaged in much research and thought, which culminated in his first fountain pen ink: Lime Green (although he originally named it Matcha Green). After coming up with a few more colors, he started selling his inks on eBay. He made a few sales and worked with his customers to understand what makes great inks great.

Sales started to pick up, a few prominent bloggers wrote reviews and spread the word, and at that point, all hell broke loose. In a matter of five months, he went from… Read More

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Quick Look: Robert Oster Signature Inks (Part 2)

Banner image for the Robert Oster Signature Ink Quick Look posts

More Amazing Colors from Robert Oster Signature

I asked Rob Oster for stories to share with you, wondering specifically how he decided to start making and selling his own line of inks. His reply: “My obsession with ink occurred out of the blue one day as I looked from over my powerbook at a sea of ink bottles….wondering why I don’t make an ink as close to nature as possible.”

I believe it. Especially looking at… Read More

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Quick Look: Robert Oster Signature Inks (Part 1)

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Robert Oster Signature: A Tsunami of Color from Down Under

Australia has a lot of the grooviest things on this planet. They have the best spiders. They have the coolest snakes. They have the cutest marsupials. If that wasn’t enough, a mighty wave of new and little-known ink companies are emerging from the wild and wonderful island continent. In the last year, I’ve learned of four such companies from the land Down Under: Toucan, Blackstone, Bookbinders, and the newest kid on the block, Robert Oster Signature. Nestled in the heart of South Australia’s wine country, Robert Oster Signature is a (mostly) one-man outfit run by (you guessed it)… Read More

/ / Fountain Pens, Reviews / 12 Comments

Pilot Falcon Review

The Pilot Falcon Fountain Pen, capped and laying down

Right out of my “I always wanted one of these” file, please give a warm welcome to the…

Pilot Falcon Fountain Pen (a.k.a. Namiki Falcon)

Price: $150.00
Nib: Soft Fine
Filling System: Cartridge/Converter (Pilot Proprietary)

Disclaimer & Giveaway

This pen was provided for review by Pen Chalet. Because I don’t want you clowns thinking I’m handing out artificially inflated reviews in exchange for free products, I decided to give this pen away to one lucky reader (details at bottom of post).

About the Pen:

I’ve been using fountain pens for…oh, just over two and a half years. My first was a total impulse buy. I was wandering through Staples, noticed a $7 Sheaffer Viewpoint calligraphy fountain pen hiding on the bottom peg, and decided I couldn’t live without it. Two hours later, I had blown through half a cartridge and was completely engrossed in YouTube, watching video after video from Brian Goulet, Stephen Brown, and a few others. Pen reviews, how-to videos, disassembly/repair instructions, and Q&As. I was hooked. I began researching different pens and started a list of those I “had to own.”

One of the more interesting pens often mentioned was the bold & mysterious Pilot Falcon, with its strange and unique-shaped nib, its soft springiness that allows you to get some line variation with just a little pressure (don’t you dare call it a “flex” nib, though!), and its $150 price tag. At $7, my still-freshly-inked Sheaffer was probably the most expensive pen I had in the house, so the thought of spending $150 on a pen seemed ludicrous. I put the Falcon on my “When I’m Rich” list and went on binge-watching videos.

Over the course of the last couple years, I heard many things about the Falcon, both flattering and not-so-flattering. The most common argument against the Falcon was… Read More

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Quick Look: 11 Callifolio Inks

Sampler image and title block for the Callifolio ink comparison: Anahuac, Baikal, Bleu Equinoxe #6, Botany Bay, Cannelle, Cassis, Grenat, Inca Sol, Oconto, Olifants, and Olivastre

Callifolio Inks: Mostly Unknown, but Super Interesting French Export

Callifolio is a line of fountain pen inks from French art supply manufacturer Artisan Pastellier. They actually have two lines of ink (their other is Encre Classique, which  are mixable so you can create your own colors). Artisan Pastellier also makes art pastels, watercolors, natural & metallic pigments, sealing wax, and a few other brightly colored art supplies.

There’s not much talk of the Callifolio inks out there, and I only know of… Read More

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Italix Parson’s Essential Fountain Pen Review

Italix Parson's Essential Fountain Pen, uncapped with the pen laying down and the cap laying beside it

If you’re on the quest for affordable italic nibs, you’ll want to read about the…

Italix Parson’s Essential Fountain Pen

Price: $55.00
Nib: Fine Cursive Italic (FCI)
Filling System: Cartridge/Converter (Standard International)

Background & History:

Italix is the “house brand” of the British online fountain pen retailer MrPen. The Italix brand was born in the mid 2000s, when Sheaffer and Cross decided to discontinue many of their italic nib options. According to MrPen owner, Peter Ford, “We thought this odd because 30% of our sales were speciality nib options.”

Knowing the decision of their two largest suppliers would leave a gap in product offerings (and likely cut into sales), Ford worked with a pen manufacturer that would take kit pens and outfit them with Manuscript calligraphy nibs. This initial product was called the Originalis. It was extremely popular and is still in production today.

Looking to expand their line of high-quality, affordable italic fountain pens, MrPen developed a new model, commissioning the bodies from an Asian company and the nibs from Jowo in Germany. This new model was initially called The Buddy, and sales were not so hot. They changed the name to Red, and sales continued to be disappointing. In the meantime, they worked out a technique for quickly and efficiently modifying the nibs into a number of various italic grinds.

While the Parson’s Essential nib is from Jowo, other pen models include nibs made by Bock and Manuscript.

Upon perfecting their nib modification technique, they decided to rename the pen again, this time to reflect the quality of the market sector they were trying to attract. After a few positive reviews for the newly christened Parson’s Essential, sales of the pen “went ballistic” (in Mr. Ford’s own words).

The Italix Parson's Essential Fountain Pen, capped and in its Box, which is labeled MrPen

After about a decade of producing affordable, custom italic fountain pens, the Italix brand boasts about 11 different models, each with a dizzying array of nib grinds available (standard, crisp italic, cursive italic, oblique, etc.).

Close up shot of the Italix Parson's Essential Fountain Pen two-tone, stainless steel, #5 nib (Fine Cursive Italic)… Read More

/ / Fountain Pens, Ink, Paper, Reviews / 1 Comment

Quick Look: Cheap Composition Notebooks

The covers of Five Cheap Composition Notebooks, four from Norcom (Brazil, Colombia, USA, Vietnam) and one Casemate (China)

“Back to School” Means Dirt-Cheap Notebooks! Are They Any Good with Fountain Pens?

Fountain pens are wonderful. That’s a given. But because they use water-based ink, they’re really not suitable for most run-of-the-mill paper (see what I did, there?). Fountain pens aren’t very popular in the US, so most of the everyday paper found here is a poor match for pens that use water-based inks. Ballpoints and gel pens effectively make up the entirety of American daily writing instruments, so manufacturers only need to supply paper that works well with those inks…which, really, any crappy paper can do.

So that leaves us poor fountain pen users stuck buying higher quality paper, mostly imported from France or Japan. These papers are great, but they’re pretty expensive compared to… Read More